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Luka Magnotta declines to address court after conviction

WARNING: Some the images are graphic and images of written notes contain vulgar language that some may find offensive.
The court released to the public images of items entered into evidence at the Luke Magnotta murder trial, which are available for viewing in this gallery.
Montreal police investigator Michel Bourque brings evidence into the Luka Magnotta murder trial in Montreal, Sept. 30, 2014. (CHANTAL POIRIER/QMI Agency)

Leclair maintained his client is "a real person" who is schizophrenic.

"I have seen up close his insanity," said the Toronto lawyer, who called on governments to increase funding to combat mental illness.

"Such illness, if untreated, can lead to tragic results, as we have seen today," Leclair said.

The Crown suggested Magnotta made a mistake in not taking the stand to back up his claim that voices told him to kill Lin.

"If he did not take stand, well, he took the chance that the jury would be left with very little to ponder on this matter," said Bouthillier.

Leclair wouldn't say if Magnotta was following or rejecting his advice by not testifying.

He added there are "some" grounds for appeal but that it's too early to decide.

"It's been a long and challenging road and I need some rest," said Leclair.

The jury deliberated for nearly eight days following three months of testimony.

At the climactic moment at 11:15 a.m. on Tuesday, the jury foreman stood up and said "guilty" in a loud, clear voice to all the counts read out by the clerk.

They convicted Magnotta of four other charges including indignity to a human body.

Magnotta, sleepy-eyed, pudgy and sporting a jail coat, had absolutely no reaction in the prisoner's box.

He gained infamy in late May 2012 by filming himself slashing Lin's throat and sawing off his limbs.

The Crown referred to the native of Wuhan, China, as "the perfect victim" because he had no family in Canada.

The jury favoured the Crown's contention that the sex worker was sadistic, "extremely organized" and "on a mission."

Bouthillier said his key pieces of evidence were Magnotta's warning, six months beforehand, that he would kill and make a movie about it.

Magnotta also shot a rehearsal video, with a man who was not Jun Lin, one week before the murder. It showed a naked man tied to a bed, in the same position Lin was in a week later when his body was cut to pieces.

Magnotta fled to Europe after the murder, and Interpol issued its highest alert for the man British press dubbed the "porn star killer."

The victim's father, Diran Lin, attended the entire trial.

His pro-bono Montreal lawyer, Daniel Urbas, held back tears in court Tuesday as he read the father's victim-impact statement.